17 volumes of manuscripts, newspaper extracts, transcripts, antiquarian memoranda, drawings etc. mainly relating to the ancient parish of Bitton, to the east of Bristol, brought together by Rev. Ellacombe. Some volumes also contain letters to Ellacombe, mostly on the subject of church bells, on which he was an authority. The collection is mentioned in the Historical Manuscripts Commission Report, no 5 (1876). Some volumes have indexes created by Ellacombe.

The titles of the volumes follow the titles given in the 'Bristol Bibliography' of 1916, and the catalogue descriptions have been taken from the notes made by Irvine Gray in 1978.

Custodial history

H. T. Ellacombe (1790 - 1885) bequeathed in his will, proved 25th September 1885, to "The Bristol Library Society in Bristol or to the Bristol Library, as my executors may think best, all my manuscripts, papers, drawings and collections relating to the Parish of Bitton or other parts of Gloucestershire, excepting such as relate to the Court Fram at Bitton, or to my family pedigree." The bequeathed mss, as listed on p.138 of the 'Bristol Bibliography, ' were originally held by Bristol Central Library and were transferred to Bristol Record Office by agreement, following the Designation of Bristol City Record Office and Bristol Central Library's Local Studies Service as an Outstanding Collection by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 2005.

Irvine Gray examined the collection at Bristol Library in 1978, for the Royal Commission for Historical Manuscripts. A transcript of his notes (library reference B29141) is included with the accession correspondence. Gray noted that at the end of Vol. 2 there is a cutting of the 1876 HMC Report on Ellacombe's Mss, with a note in his handwriting; "Many of these papers are now in the British Museum". Gray concludes that some manorial records of Bitton, early deeds of Bristol and Bitton, and papers of the Newton family (some relating to Monmouth's Rebellion) were sold to the Museum in 1879, and these account for the bulk of the records described in 1876.